The City Duma's monuments commission has rejected a proposal to set up a memorial to opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on the Moscow bridge where he was shot dead in February, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

Russian opposition party RPR-Parnas, which was co-founded by slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, announced two major changes to the faction's structure Sunday, and voiced hope that two of Russia's most famous opposition activists could soon be perched at its helm.

Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who organized massive street protests in Moscow against Vladimir Putin four years ago, had a much harder time drawing a big crowd in Siberia's largest city last month.

French President Francois Hollande said Friday that no agreement had been reached yet on the cancellation of a Mistral helicopter carriers deal with Russia and that he would take a decision in the coming weeks.

When young investigator Pavel Yasman was tasked with interrogating Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, known for his shocking political protest stunts, he never imagined that their conversations would change his life.

Russia is far from being a cultural, religious or ethnic monolith and trying to combat this diversity by suppressing minority religions promises more chaos, write M. Zuhdi Jasser and Katrina Lantos Swett.

Derk Sauer, the Dutchman who founded The Moscow Times in 1992, should be forced to leave his current job as president of the RBC news agency, a nationalist firebrand Russian politician was quoted as saying Friday.